BADAGA SCRIPT - BADAGA BARAE
It has always been felt that for a language to survive, it should have its own script. It cannot remain only as a spoken language for long. But of course, the script need not be peculiar and specific one pertaining to that particular language.

So too is the necessity of a script for Badaga. Many have attempted to achieve this objective with various degrees of success. But unfortunately, to my knowledge, no records exists, if any.

I am no expert on phonetics or languages or much less innovating an unique script. But the urge to have a separate script has convinced me that it is very much possible to 'ADOPT' an existing script and 'ADAPT' it to Badaga language

Three scripts come to mind straight away - Tamil, English and Kannada.Tamil - because a majority of us know how to speak and write due to the simple fact that we belong to Tamil Nadu, English - since most of us choose to learn as well as put our children in English medium schools and Kannada - due to the fact that Badaga is more akin to Kannada than any other language [though I firmly beleive that Badaga is a separate language on its own merit and not a dialect of Kannada]. But when trying to choose a script for Badaga, Kannada script is ruled out for the basic reason that most of us do not know the language or familiar with the script and no scope to learn it in our schools in the Nilgiris.

Hence the choice between Tamil and English. Badaga ,like many other Indian languages, has very definitive and distintive sounds/words [I do not know the exact English equivalent] that distinguishes one word from another. Even a small change in pronounciation could result in an entirely different meaning in Badaga. For example,a subtle change in context of the word 'BAE [bay]' could mean mouth, bangle, lentil, crop etc. Bella [jaggery] or BeLLa [ a male name] are two entirely differnt things. So are 'kallu - stone' and 'KaLLu - a drink'.

So, what could or should be the choice?

In Tamil script we cannot differentiate 'K' from 'G' or 'T' from 'D'. This makes a huge impact when Badaga words are written in Tamil script. 'Gaasu - potato' is totally differnt from 'Kaasu - coin, remove'. Or 'Ettu - eight' and 'Eddu - getup'. Another drawback could be the absence of 'Ha' in classical Tamil. On the other hand, in English, we cannot clearly bring out the difference of 'na' from 'Na' [anna - food, aNNa- elder brother] or 'halli - lizard' from 'haLLi - name, village'. 'Kalla - a male name' sounds the same as ' kaLLa - a thief'
.

Yes, it is indeed a little tricky to choose between Tamil and English. But, taking into consideration the younger generation who are going to be the future hope and the irrefutable fact that they are all more familiar with English than Tamil, the choice is English.

Keeping in mind the successful adoptation of English script for Malay language (Malaysia) I would plump in for English. With a few minor modifications to overcome the grey areas mentioned above, English script can be easily used in Badaga. Remember Devanagiri (Hindi) is the script for Nepali.

The 'minor' modifications that can be undertaken to overcome the drawbacks I referred above could be by using an extra 'a' - thus milk can be written as 'haalu'; 'dhadi - stick' can be different from 'dhaadi - beard'. So on and so forth.

We may use 'capital' letters to differentiate between 'bella and beLLa' as I have done above.What if a complete sentence is in capital letters ? - We may use 'bold' letters or underline the words to give the emphasis.

Innovative use of - ' - [apostrophe] can bring out the differnce between "soppu - green " and "so'ppu - soap" or "kodi - flag" and "ko'di - crore".

It is said that Indians [read Badagas] will reject 50% of anything without even hearing about it, another 50% without understanding anything OF it; and if 'anything' is still left behind they reject it just for the sake of rejecting it. Like what is happening in many hattis with 'young gowdas' ruling the roost.

BUT, ALL YOU TRUE BADAGAS - LET US START SOMEWHERE TO HAVE A SCRIPT FOR OUR LANGAUGE. IMPROVEMENTS AND INNOVATIONS CAN FALLOW. IF MICROSOFT CAN ACCEPT BADAGA AS AN UNIQUE LANGUAGE , THERE MUST BE SOMETHING .

Last edited by bjaypee on Fri Jul 13, 2007 10:52 pm; edited 1 time in total

rajunandhaFrequent poster

Joined: 04 Jan 2003
Posts: 293

Posted:
Mon Jul 09, 2007 6:12 am

Quite amazing to read the contents of this column. May be our guys having the linguistics or Literature background can give a "TRY"...

_________________Nannnndu...

rajkumarStarter

Joined: 03 Dec 2001
Posts: 19

Posted:
Thu Jul 12, 2007 1:01 pm

I am sure there is a badaga-english dictionary written by Prof Hockins & others (I am not sure if any badagas are involved) which incidentally is very very expensive. It will be interesting to see how they have spelt and pronounced the words. If it is compatible, maybe we could all buy a copy (negotiating a cheaper deal!!) which will make practising the new script easier.
Has anyone read the dictionary?
Dr K.Rajkumar

deva_mathanFrequent poster

Joined: 31 Dec 1998
Posts: 131

Posted:
Thu Jul 12, 2007 10:36 pm

Thanks Dr Rajkumar.

That indeed makes a good thought. I opine we can get two copies and keep at YBA building Ooty as library reference, so that larger groups can refer to it.

Hello Dr.Raj, Nice to see your involvement with various vexing problems concerning Badaga community from a far off place like UK.

Hi Sathish, thanks for your encouraging words.

As far as the English script used to show Badaga, I am giving below two examples of 1) the UCLA Phonetics Laboratory
[for over half a century, has collected recordings of hundreds of languages from around the world, providing source materials for phonetic and phonological research]
and 2) Prof.P Hockings ,

It is available only for limited preview, though.
You may have to buy the book for the complete version.

bjaypeeFrequent poster

Joined: 01 Aug 2001
Posts: 198

Posted:
Sat Jul 14, 2007 11:42 pm

Some more thoughts on adopting English script for Badaga

Picking up from what Prof.Paul Hockings has mentioned - rather the unicode[?] used - in the example shown here from his book
Counsel from the Ancients: Study of Badoga Proverbs, Prayers, Omens and Curses (page 54. Outline of Badaga Language - 2.1.2 Vowel Contrasts )
,

I am suggesting a simple and straight forward work around
.

The words
'to stand' & 'paddy'
are written as
'nillu & nellu'
. No problems with that.

But
'whistling' & 'to cook'
are written as
'bi:su & be:su'
. My suggestion is use
'beesu & baesu'
as they are pronounced.

(FootBall is FUTBAL and Photo is Foto in some languages that go by the pronounciation and thus making it easy).

'To wander'
'suttu'
is used. But to me
'suttu'
sounds more like
'to burn'
. I would suggest
'suthu'
for wandering. [
'SUTHUGAL or SUTHUKAL'
sounds familiar, is it not?]. Same thing for
'property'
-
'sothu'
' instead of
'sottu'
which sounds more like
'sottu'
-
'drop'
.

To blow
'oodu' - udu'
sounds and looks better than
'u:du'
and
'odhu'
instead of
'o:du'
which to a novice like me is
'run'
or
'tile'
-
'odu'
.

'To shine'
- it could be
'michu'
instead of
'miccu
and
'muchu'
instead of
'muccu'
for covering.
'Muccu'
sounds or looks more like
'mukku'
- to
gobble or swallow
.

'hennu'
[
'fruit'
] could be written as
'heNNu'
[girl] and
'hannu'
as
'haNNu'
to bring out the emphasis on 'N'.

'nadu'
for
'middle'
or plant is OK but for
'country'
it could be '
naadu
' than
'na:du'
.

Though some friends may feel odd about my adopting an existing Language â English- and adapting it to write in Badaga, for the time being, I will stick to English to express in Badaga (Script). I have used âAzhagiâ transilerate software which when installed, lets you to type in English to convert the same into Tamil, to show my âBadaga Script â ENGBAD or Badduâ

The conventions used are;

1.Capital letter brings out emphasis â like o is just o but O is OH âஒ ஓ or no is நொ but nO is நோ

2.Extra âaâ is stretching the word â like kade is கடெ but kaade is காடெ

3.Letters which are not in English alphabet but available in Badaga (and Tamil) can be accessed by using the shift key(Capital) â like l is ல but L is ள , n is ந but N is ண் . zh is ழ

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